Just a quikkie as I get ready for work!
Thought you might be interested in this little contemporary
commentary on paddlers by JB Priestley in 1940 referring to the
miraculous evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force at
Dunkirk, "Operation Dynamo". I was particularly touched by this
piece because I often think of the gallantry of the crews who went
across the Channel numerous times to rescue the "Tommies". Makes you
wonder why there is so much adversity facing the crew which is
valiantly trying to restore PS "Medway Queen" who played such a
significant part in all of this.
PJ
______________________________________________________________________
JB Priestley, 'Postscript', broadcast by the BBC, 5th June 1940.
______________________________________________________________________
Here at Dunkirk is another English epic. And to my mind what was most
characteristically English about it - so typical of us, so absurd and
yet so grand and gallant that you hardly know whether to laugh or cry
when you read about them - was the part played in the difficult and
dangerous embarkation - not by the warships magnificent though they
were - but by the little pleasure steamers. We've known them and
laughed at them, these fussy little steamers, all of our lives. We
have called them 'the shilling sicks'. We have watched them load and
unload their crowds of holiday passengers - the gents full of high
spirits and bottled beer, the ladies eating pork pies, the children
sticky with peppermint rock. Sometimes they only went as far as the
next seaside resort. But the boldest of them might manage a Channel
crossing to let everybody have a glimpse of Bologne. They were
usually paddle steamers, making a great deal more fuss with all their
churning than they made speed; and they were not proud for they let
you see their works going round.
They liked to call themselves 'Queens' and 'Belles'; and even if
they were new, there was always something old-fashioned, a Dickens
touch, a mid-Victorian air about them. They seemed to belong to the
same ridiculous holiday world as pierrots and piers, sand castle ham-
and-egg teas, palmists, automatic machines, and crowded, sweating
promenades. But they were called out of that world - and let it be
noted they were called out in good time and good order. Yes, these
'Brighton Belles' and 'Brighton Queens' left that innocent foolish
world of theirs - to sail into the inferno, to defy bombs, shells,
magnetic mines, torpedoes, machine-gun-fire - to rescue our
soldiers.
Some of them, alas, will never return. Among those paddle steamers
that will never return was one that I knew well, for it was the pride
of our ferry service to the Isle of Wight, none other than the good
ship 'Gracie Fields'. I tell you, we were proud of the 'Gracie
Fields', for she was the glittering queen of our local line, and
instead of taking an hour over her voyage, used to do it, churning
like mad, in forty five minutes. And now never again will we board
her at Cowes and go down into her dining saloon for a fine breakfast
of bacon and eggs. She has paddled and churned away - for ever. But
now - look - this little steamer,like all her brave and battered
sisters is immortal. She'll go sailing proudly down the years in the
epic of Dunkirk.
And our grandchildren, when they learn how we began this War by
snatching glory out of defeat, and then swept on to victory, may also
learn how the little holiday steamers made an excursion to hell and
came back glorious.
JB Priestley, 'Postscript', broadcast by the BBC, 5th June 1940.
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For those who are interested in Dunkirk, you'll find the following
Website of interest but you'll need a good hour to read through it.
Battle of Britain - 1940
Operation Dynamo
The Mass Evacuation from Dunkirk
Part 1(Plans made in Britain - Troops head for Dunkirk)
http://www.battleofbritain.net/section-2/page-5.htmlPart 2(From setbacks to Success)
http://www.battleofbritain.net/section-2/page-5a.htmlPJ
"Lest we forget"
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